Iran to launch indigenous Simorgh satellite carrier

Iranian officials pose with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (7th L) in front of the indigenous Simorgh (Phoenix) satellite carrier during the unveiling ceremony of the space aircraft in Tehran, on February 3, 2010.

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Head of Iran’s Space Agency (ISA) Hamid Fazeli says the country is set to lift off its indigenous Simorgh (Phoenix) satellite carrier by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (started March 20).
Fazeli said on Sunday that work on Simorgh satellite carrier is underway, and it will be ready for blast-off by the end of Iranian calendar year.
He noted that Iran is going to send its first bio-capsule with a living creature into space soon.
Fazeli highlighted that the project will be mounted on a solid-fuel satellite rocket and it will be launched after the end of the holy month of Ramadan, which ends later in August.
Iran launched its first indigenous satellite, Omid (Hope), in 2009. The country also sent its first biocapsule of living creatures into space in February 2010, using the indigenous Kavoshgar-3 (Explorer-3) carrier.
Moreover, in June 2011, Iran put the 15.3-kilogram Rasad (Observation) orbiter in space. Rasad's mission was to take images of the Earth and transmit them along with telemetry information to the ground stations.
Iran also launched Navid-e Elm-o Sanat (Harbinger of Science and Industry), another indigenous satellite into orbit on February 3, 2012.
The satellite is a telecom, measurement and scientific one, whose records could be used in a wide range of fields.
Iran is one of the 24 founding members of the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, which was set up in 1959.
Tehran also plans to launch the country's first manned mission to space by 2019.
MP/MA